Tag Archives: The Mindfulist

The Mindfulist – Yet another “catch-up post”

26 Jan

So with all of my good intentions to post daily reflections on the prompts appearing on The Mindfulist, I fell off the wagon in my planning for the most recent Montreal Girl Geek Dinner. No time like the present to get started so here we go with a big old ‘catch-up post’.

January 14th – Breath Quality – How are you breathing right now? If the quality of your life depends on the quality of your breath, how’s yours?

I’m a breath-holder and am not as attentive to my breathing as I’d like to be. I just inhaled a big breath and gave thought as to where in my body it emanated from. Feeling a swelling of my bagpipe-like lungs, I have the sensation of air making it’s way from deep in my belly, upwards to exit my small, Devil’s Food Cake flavoured Jelly Belly nostrils.

January 15th -“Reflect upon your present blessings, of which every man has plenty; not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some.” – Charles Dickens

Taking time to feel gratitude is something that I need to engage in more. Add onto this, the desire to share that gratitude with people in my life that constantly inspire me and take me out of my comfort zone into a space where I’m discovering more about myself than I’ve taken the time to do in some time. As a Buddhist, I’ve spend so much time engaging in self-inquiry but not applied a similar mindset to my professional life. It’s invigorating to now cast an analytical eye towards my career path. I am unemployed but I am blessed.

January 16th – “Yawn. It’s one of the best things you can do for your brain.” – Andrew Newburg for Penn Gazette (read full article here)

“Yawning is one of the best kept secrets in neuroscience” -Hmm…I must admit that this article intrigued me quite a bit as I’ve always been one to regard yawning as a sign of boredom or exhaustion but never as the gateway to heightened empathy or cognitive awareness. My pug yawns non-stop. Big, yowly, tongue-curling yawns in which his normally pug-buggy eyes disappear deep into his routund skull and he lets out a whimpered “Yaureech” sound. O.K. I’ll add more yawning to my daily repetoire and report back on the effects.

January 18th – Notice Someone- Take the time today to notice something new/different about your coworker (or a person you work with). If you work alone, notice something about yourself.

Working from home presents many challenges but the main thing I noticed from this exercise is that I drink less water at home than I do when I’m in and office setting. Not sure if it’s the lack of a water cooler that makes trips to the Brita less inspiring or if I’m simply not mindful of my space. I just scrambled from the couch to fill up my water bottle and have committed to making this a daily ritual.


The Mindfulist – Catchup post

13 Jan

I have a few posts to catch up with over on The Mindfulist due to rushing around and not being very mindful with my time and energy – so I’ll get right to it:

One Item

Can you remove one item from you work area to give yourself more space to think? Do so now.

In my case, I don’t really have a set work area. As a home-worker, I take my laptop from room to room and set up shop wherever feels most comfortable. This wreaks havoc with my posture on occasion when I don’t properly get my ergonomics on, but for the most part I find a desk can be a bit confining. I think I’m only realizing this now as I emerge out of cubicle culture into something which has a lot less structure. I do have plans to set up a work space so I think that is my first step. Then, no doubt, I’ll need to prune it as necessary due to my habitual pack-rat patterns.

Half Smile

Practice wearing a half-smile throughout your workday today.

I flipped this practice suggestion to be ‘practice being open’ while I sat in a meeting recently. Pausing to see where I was getting stuck. What pushed any buttons. Where I got caught up projecting or adding a black or white filter to the presentation. Taking this attitude in how I conduct myself during discussions, business deals and any interactions I have helps me to see where I could be missing out on opportunities or creating a storyline that takes me far away from where I need to be.

Minimalist Computer

Take a few minutes today to create a minimalist computer experience for yourself.

I cleaned up my desktop today and filed away a bunch of floating documents that didn’t need my immediate attention. I did a bit of color-coding so the remaining documents would be easy to identify based on what area of my life they relate to. I’ve also closed a bunch of the tabs that I’ve had open and moved them to Instapaper to be read at a later date.

← Previous Entries